By the summer of 1992, the Grateful Dead were deep into the final chapter of their long run, and the signs of both endurance and strain were present in equal measure. Jerry Garcia had clawed his way back from his 1986 diabetic coma and the subsequent years of physical decline, but by the early '90s the road was taking its toll again — his playing could be transcendent one night and frustratingly tentative the next. Vince Welnick had joined the fold in 1990 following Brent Mydland's devastating death, bringing a more straightforward rock sensibility to the keys, and the band was touring relentlessly, filling arenas and stadiums to meet the demand that had never really let up since the touch of grey era made them accidental mainstream stars. The '92 summer tour was a grinding affair, with the band crisscrossing the country in the heat, doing what they'd always done: show up, plug in, and find the music. Charlotte Coliseum was a standard-issue early '90s arena, part of the sprawling suburban complex that had opened in 1988 to serve a rapidly growing New South city. Charlotte was never a traditional Dead stronghold the way San Francisco, New York, or the college towns of the Northeast were, but the Southeast had developed a devoted and rowdy following by this point, and these coliseum shows carried a certain loose, swampy energy that could coax some unexpected moments out of the band. The one song we have confirmed from this show is U.S. Blues, Garcia and Hunter's breezy, sardonic send-up of American mythology.
It's a song that lived most naturally as a set closer or encore — a crowd-pleaser with a winking swagger, Garcia slipping into that lazy, confident drawl that made the song feel like the band was letting you in on the joke. In the early '90s context, U.S. Blues carried a slightly different weight, the satire perhaps landing a little sharper given the political moment. A well-played version finds the whole band locking into that rolling shuffle and Garcia's guitar cutting loose with some genuine grin-inducing runs in the final stretches. Recording information for this show is limited in our database, so come in with appropriate expectations — but even a decent audience tape of a late-era show can capture something real, the room sound and crowd noise part of the document. If U.S. Blues was how this night ended, it ended with a smile. That's worth hearing.